PRESS RELEASE: 2nd Annual Juried Photography Exhibition
Juror: Jennifer Blessing
(Curator of Photography, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum)
Exhibition: 2nd Annual Juried Photography Exhibition
Dates: March 13- March 31, 2012
Reception: Saturday Mar 24, 4-7pm
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present their 2nd International Juried Photography Exhibition. Curated by Jennifer Blessing, Curator, Guggenheim Museum, New York, the exhibition opens March 13th and continues through March 31, 2012. In celebration, a special reception will be held on Saturday, March 24th, 4:00 – 7:00 pm.
This exhibition is a diverse gathering of twenty-three photographers from the United States and abroad. They share a common interest in capturing a specific moment and situation using the photographic image as a starting point with a variety of ending goals.
Viridian Artist, Robert Mielenhausen, chair of the committee that organizes the Juried Photographic Competition at Viridian, selected Jennifer Blessing as the Curator for this season competition. Blessing joined the Guggenheim’s curatorial staff in 2002, after previously working at the museum from 1989-97. In addition to organizing photo-based exhibitions, she is developing the museum’s photography collection. In her role as Curator of the photography competition at Viridian Artists, Blessing spent many long hours viewing over 800 images sent to Viridian from around the world.
In her curatorial statement, Blessing states: “The artists whose photographs are installed here arrested my attention because they obsessively and exquisitely represented their subjects. Whether exterior or interior locales, natural or manmade sites, portraits of humans or animals or insects, these photos all convey their authors’ investment in their images, both in terms of form and concept.”
Because she feels there is so much interesting and exciting work being done today in photography and because part of Viridian’s mission is to give exposure to outstanding under-known artists, the gallery’s director, Vernita Nemec, selected the images of twenty-five photographers not selected by Blessing to be shown in an ongoing Power Point presentation during the exhibition. She states: “the multiplicity of creative expression in photography today is staggering. I was inspired by the ability of some photographer/artists to capture unique moments of reality and the impetus that others felt to create their own imaginary reality – not an oxymoron in today’s digital & virtual worlds.”
Viridian Artists is proud to share these images and feel viewers will find this an exciting and rewarding exhibition of new art.
Group Exhibition: Juried by Jennifer Blessing
First Prize: Megan Mette Second Prize: Angela Smith Third Prize: William Atkins
Honorable Mention: Rachel Nemecek * Dahirwe Rushemeza * Shreepad Joglekar *
Colin Avery * Theodore William Arnold * Ellen Gaube * Ashley Jones * Elizabeth Jones * Sarah Nesbitt *Andreanne Michon * DeeDee Maguire * Emily Hanako Momohara *
Paul Morrison * Donna Pinckley * Harold Ross * Jane Rothman * Jimmy Salmon *
Seena Sussman * Chieko Tanemura * Samantha Vandeman
On Power Point: Director’s Choice Juried by Vernita Nemec
Juliette Argent * Stephanie Aust * Susan Barnett * Mimi Botscheller * Deborah Cahn *
Tina Carter * Virginia Coleman * Manuel Cosentino * Victor Currie * Nicholas Fedak II *
Cynthia Fleury * Jill Flyer * Amanda Gahan * Joshua Greenberg * Ken Green *
Susan Evans Grove * Barbara Habenstreit * Teri Havens * Melissa Haviland * Joshua Hobson *
Anwyn Hurxthal * Gisa Indenbaum * Thomas Jackson * David Jakelic * Lynne Johnson